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Friday, July 1

Overcoming False Starts on Your First Chapter

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Many writers struggling with getting that first chapter just right. Here are some tips to help you write the perfect opening chapter.

It's all too easy to get stuck in chapter-one-rewrite-mode and never move beyond it. You reach the end of that important first chapter, but it just feels wrong, so you go back and rewrite it. And it still feels off. So you do it again. And again. Pretty soon, you're questioning your whole novel and if you even have what it takes to write one. You start thinking if you can't get the first chapter right, what hope do you have of crafting a good novel?

That's a lot of pressure to put on yourself, and on your brand-new novel before it has a chance to become a novel. If you find yourself stuck here, step back and look at the novel objectively. Ask:

1. Is this the right starting point for the novel?

If you get to the end and can't figure out how to get to the next important event, you might be starting too early. There's nothing driving the story past that opening. But if you get to the end and feel the need to revise and explain more so readers "get it," you might be starting too late and not covering the critical elements needed to understand the story.

2. Is it the right point of view character?

You'll find this more often with multiple POV novels, but even a single POV novel can start off with the wrong character at the wheel. Maybe it's not this person's story after all. Or maybe another character would make a better first impression and get the story rolling faster.

3. Does your point of view character have a goal?

A lack of narrative drive is a sure fire way to stall a novel. Beginnings can be especially tough because the story hasn't technically started yet and you have to introduce the character and idea, while at the same time having a goal to advance the story.

4. Does it cover an event worth reading about?

What's happening in the scene goes a long way toward hooking the reader. Are you offering something inherently interesting in some way, or just starting off like any other day in the life? Big or small, it doesn't matter, but find something a reader might care about.

5. Are you being too picky?

Everyone has their own methods, but is it possible you expect perfection on a first draft? Give yourself permission to stink and move on. You can always edit later.

6. Are there things you don't know yet?

Sometimes the discovery is part of the process, but other times you need to know more details before the story falls into place. Is the missing piece something you can gloss over for now until you figure it out? Can you use a placeholder detail for now? If not, you might need to do a bit more planning before you dive back in.

In many cases, pushing past the sticking point will keep the writing momentum going. Try writing a few chapters and see how you feel after that. If it still feels all wrong by the time you get to chapter three, reevaluate your opening again. Maybe you've written enough by then to have a better idea of what needs to be done.

And of course, sometimes you just don't know the beginning until you get to the end. Once you see how a story resolves, you know instantly where it needs to begin.

Go step-by-step through plot and story structure-related issues, such as wandering plots; a lack of scene structure; no goals, conflicts, or stakes; low tension; no hooks; and slow pacing. Learn how to analyze your draft, spot any problems or weak areas, and fix those problems.

With clear and easy-to-understand examples, Fixing Your Plot & Story Structure Problems offers five self-guided workshops that target the common issues that make readers stop reading. It will help you:

Create unpredictable plots that keep readers guessing

Find the right beginning and setup for your story

Avoid the boggy, aimless middle

Develop compelling hooks to build tension in every scene

Craft strong goals, conflicts, and stakes to grab readers

Determine the best pacing and narrative drive for your story

Fixing Your Plot & Story Structure Problems starts every workshop with an analysis to pinpoint problem areas and offers multiple revision options in each area. You choose the options that best fit your writing process. It's an easy-to-follow guide to crafting gripping plots and novels that are impossible to put down.

Janice Hardy is the award-winning author of the teen fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, including The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. The Shifter, was chosen for the 2014 list of "Ten Books All Young Georgians Should Read" from the Georgia Center for the Book.

Excellent advice. I stayed on my first chapter for about a week, constantly rewriting it. I figured out I was trying to make it perfect, which it is not, and decided that if I was ever going to finish I needed to move on. I'll worry about it again when I'm done with my first draft.

Great post. I feel I'm sort of the same. I love working on openings and will spend a lot of time doing so before I even know where the story is going to go. You give some great advice for getting that opener down right the first time.

I'm kind of the same way, Janice. Going back to my university essays and writings, I've always spent a disprotionate amount of time on the opening lines. I'd walk around for hours sometimes, smoking cigarettes, drinking coffee, obsessing about the opening scene, be it dialogue, action scene, narration, whatever. I just started my fifth novel, find myself going on those same long walks in the mounains again. PS Like you said in an earlier post, my first few novels were like runaway freight trains, no structure, no end in sight, just wastelands as far as my mind's eye could see. I'm hoping this fifth book is my Shifter, the book that feels complete, marks the beginning of my professional writing life. As always, illuminating.

An interesting observation. You made me think about how I write the opening lines, and I realized I'm nothing like you. :) I start writing the beginning, but then if I don't manage to connect it smoothly with the next scene, I'll just leave it and write from that scene on. I'll return to the beginning again and again during writing, change it, delete it, start anew, add stuff etc., but it never deters me from writing on.I can even have a whole book written before I actually start working on the beginning.

I am so following your blog henceforth. All of those are problems I've had with my openings--even with general scenes.

My narrators may spring like Athena out of my poor skull, but not so for the narrator's situation and destination, which color the person and tense of a work. The same scene can have differing impact, if it's changed from 1st to 3rd person, or if present tense is adjusted to past.

Brigita, there are a million ways to do things :) Just because something works for me, doesn't mean that's the best way to do it.

It's funny, because after I did this post I hit a snag with my first chapter. I liked a lot of stuff in it, but it just felt wrong. Nya was in the wrong head space (and I think this'll make a good post for this week) so the tone was all wrong. I cut the whole 3K words, moved it to a "save for later" file and started over. SO much happier with the new chapter.

Another issue I've been struggling with on a current WIP: Do you have the right tone for your narrator yet? I have rewritten the opening for my WIP about five times now because the narrator feels inauthentic to me.

Coming back to this when I start book two. This looks really helpful, thanks. My first book I had to make the first chapter #2 and made the backstory/nightmare (A long dark dream that I had her have that was split up into about ten chapters, am never doing that again. So much work to fix and to make it not sound like a nightmare.) as the first chapter. Going to look around what other gems have you posted?